I wanted to turn my wife's Mossberg Bantam Youth 20ga into a 12ga pattern performer without the crunch on the shoulder. It has a bushnell Holo sight on it so she can be sure she is lined up where she needs to be
I had been loading some 3" shells with #7 Hevi shot and have never really been impressed with the performance in the patterns, although it did well enough to harvest a turkey out to 40yds. I was getting 130 +or- pellets in the 10" at 40yds, but I always wanted more. I had a Carlsons choke and a TightWad choke on hand over the years and each did OK.
A few Saturdays ago I was at the range with my buddy spurhntr( as most of you know him). He had an extra Indian Creek .555 for the Invector threads and I had been brainstorming with Hal(hawglips) over the winter months on some thoughts about Tungsten loads for the 20ga. We clunked heads on components,I shared some powder thoughts, He shared a recipe afterwards and it all boiled down to be a winner.
I loaded up some 1-1/4oz T9 loads to try.
The target is a laser ranged 40yds. calm wind. about 65 degrees
Needless to say I was very happy with the result. It also did quite well, @170 pellets with my old 1.25oz Hevi 7 loads, which was up 40 pellets in the 10" from my other tests.
BUT......My Name is Matt....and I have a problem.....
I KNEW there was more potential there.
I was thinking a more open diameter, with 1-7/16oz of shot might be ideal. I emailed Stuart from Indian Creek, shared some info on what I wanted to do, he offered his thoughts and he said they were running some Invector chokes that week. He sent me a .570 with the Internal wad catchers. We made a swap( another story for another time) and I loaded up some new T9 loads, plus some 1-7/16oz #7 hevi loads with a new wad i wanted to try.
The day was sunny but windy and the temps were 57-60 degrees. I measured out 40yds and set up my target stand.
The first shot is with the 1.43oz load of T9 and the IC.570
I am convinced that choke is the real deal for that load. I also think that on a slightly warmer day and especially with another few inches of barrel that load is a 300 pellet performer. The gun only has an 18.5" barrel on it and it did much better than I ever though it would.
I tried the same load with the IC.555
She could hunt the rest of her life with that combo and be A-OK...........but the .570 is going on Saturday!
I shot the new 1.43oz #7 Hevi load out of the IC.555
218 hits and again I am thrilled.
The same load with the IC.570 put 210 pellets in there but I don't know what happened to the pic.
It seems like the Hevi likes it tighter......Tungsten a bit more open.
The great thing about it is that I can really have her use either choke with either load and it is going to be bad news for a gobbler IF i can get one close enough and if she does her part.
I want to give thanks to Todd, Hal, Stuart and Scott for all their ideas, help and advice.
